My school doesn’t offer any AP courses, so would not taking any AP exam be a problem?
No. Colleges will view your schedule in the context of what is available at your school. If no AP courses are available, it will not be held against you, nor will you be expected to take AP exams when courses are not offered.
Students at my high school are taking like 4-6 APs …
Any particular reason why you’re following a different path from others at your school?
At the risk of sounding like my mother…If students at your high school all jumped off a cliff, would you?
Back to the topic at hand. From personal experience, last Spring, I went to an Exploring College Options event, which had reps from Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Duke, and Georgetown. During the Q&A, someone asked, “What do you think of applicants who self-study for additional AP’s over and above the AP classes they take?” One rep responded, “Please don’t do that. We’re not impressed by that.” The other reps all nodded.
If you want to take AP tests to potentially earn college credit, be my guest. However, the scores will not factor into the admissions decision.
I agree with @skieurope, unless…
If your counselor will indicate you are taking less than the most rigorous schedule because you aren’t self-studying APs as some of your classmates are, then that would be an issue. It would be total BS for them to punish you for not going beyond their offerings, but it would be good to know.
Colleges judge you in the context of your high school and the courses offered there. If your high school does not offer AP courses, colleges DO NOT penalize applicants, nor do they expect students to self-study for AP tests.
On the other hand, if your high school offers many AP courses, colleges DO expect students to take advantage of those recourses and take as many AP’s as you can.
This question is primarily for @gibby - but I would appreciate answers from any in the know.
One question I have never seen definitely answered - do Harvard and peers consider AP results for exams taken prior to 12th grade? Although no official score report is required, the Common App does allow the student to list scores from AP and IB examinations.
I would assume that for some students, excellent AP scores could be a significant portion of their academic credentials - particularly for those who have earned 5s on multiple AP exams, those who attend high schools that are not highly regarded or have significant grade inflation, and those who have self studied for the exams, thus have no corresponding grade in their transcript.
A related question - if a student has taken multiple AP classes but does not report any results, would the omission be noted? It might suggest that either the student took the class but skipped the exam, or did not do well enough to want to report their results.
I’m not @gibby, so I’ll refrain from answering the first part, but my opinion has been posted many times 
For the related question, the omission is often noted. In not reporting results, the applicant runs the risk of the AO assuming that the applicant was either not motivated enough to take the exam or took the exam and scored a 1.
@BldrDad: As far as I’m know, YPSM and the little ivies DO NOT place as much emphasis on AP and IB exams as Harvard. I could be wrong, but those schools haven’t been as forthcoming in writing as Harvard about the importance of AP and IB towards admissions. For example, William Fitzsimmons has said: http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/harvarddean-part2/
But that statement hasn’t been matched by other schools.
Yes. All AP classes appear on a student’s transcript, so, IMHO, if an Admissions office sees that a student took an AP class, but did not take the applicable AP test, that raises a red flag in the Admissions Process, and Admissions must guess as to why. Did the student not take the test because: (a) They couldn’t afford it or (b) did they not take the test because they didn’t have any interest in taking it, or didn’t think they would do well? Or, (c) did they take the test and not score well – as in they scored a 1 or a 2 on the exam. While answer (a) is completely acceptable, answers (b) and (c) might be reasons to not push a student to the next level.
My school offers no APs but it’s common for kids to take the tests to try to impress admissions. I applied SCEA, no APs or hooks, and was the only one accepted (early). This is anecdotal of course
It surprises me that reported AP and IB scores can play a role in admissions when there is no verification of these scores. Of course anyone who claims scores that are proven to be false risks serious consequences, but otherwise they are accepted at face value. These schools do not accept self-reported SAT and ACT scores - in fact Harvard noticed an unreported ACT score on my daughter’s Common App and HS transcript (it was a state-mandated ACT without writing, so she didn’t bother to submit it), and contacted her and requested an official score report.
@gibby - My daughter did request official AP and IB score reports be sent to Harvard, but I believe you said that admissions would not have seen this report. Sending them seemed a good idea at the time, but perhaps it was just wasted money!
I’m not sure what happens with IB reports, but the College Board automatically sends AP score reports directly to the college’s registrar’s office, which holds them to add to a matriculated student’s file. So, AP official score reports are NEVER seen by the Admissions Office (hence it’s a waste of money. I wish the College Board was more forthcoming on this issue, but as a FOR-profit company, their bottom line is enhanced when freshman applicant’s have all their AP scores sent blindly to colleges). As such, Harvard, and other colleges, truly rely on the accuracy and truthfulness of each student to self-report their scores.
@skieurope I find it quite strange that Ivies would scold self studying APs. I was watching a video of the admissions committee from Amherst College reviewing applications. In one instance in the video, one of the officers (as they were reviewing an application) said: “Wow, he got all those 5s without taking the courses?”
So, it really seems to me that each college has its own preference rather than one, united, opinion. What is your personal preference on self studying APs? If you were an admissions officer and saw a prospective applicant with 4s and 5s through self studying, what would you say?
In case you want the video, search on YouTube: “College Admissions: Inside the Decision Room”. Once there, skip to 0:43 and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
The whole thing is quite confusing (how an elite college like Amherst looks favorably towards it but Ivies dont)
I suspect that context is important. We homeschooled our sons through 8th grade, and then sent them off to a traditional high school. Many of our homeschooling friends continued to homeschool through high school. When applying to top schools, homeschoolers face the difficulty of validating their educational experience to others. “Mom gave me straight As” doesn’t necessarily inspire confidence in admissions committees.
As a result, many homeschoolers take many AP exams and SAT II tests. “Mom gave me an A in Calculus, AND I got a 5 on the AP Calc BC test” works a lot better. Yet, by high school, many homeschoolers are mostly self-learners. They are directly analogous to the high school student who studies for an AP exam pretty much on his or her own. It is common wisdom among homeschoolers that highly-selective schools are going to look to these tests to support the claims of the student’s transcript.
I wonder whether, where there are no AP courses offered, a similar view may prevail. The student who takes 10 AP courses, and the exams for each, and then takes a few extra tests is gilding the lily. The student is betraying a certain unidimensionality. One might say that the student is in a rut. But the student for whom no AP courses were available who nonetheless prepares for, and does well on a few exams isn’t in a rut, but rather, doing his or her best to offer validation for the material that he or she has legitimately studied and learned.
This may be especially so when students attend schools that offer courses in the AP subject matter, but don’t offer courses with College Board-approved curriculum, and thus, can’t label their courses on their transcripts as “AP” (which is a registered trademark of the College Board).
or choose not to label their courses as such because they do not want to go through the CB audit.
@futuredoctor2028 My opinion was very eloquently expressed by @notjoe I think colleges would prefer that you take courses that your HS offers. There is, in my mind, a difference between taking an “Advanced Chemistry” class in HS and supplementing the material on your own to prep for the AP test vs. self studying AP Chem from soup to nuts. As mentioned above, self studying, while taking a rigorous course load within the HS will leave little time for the applicant to develop non-academic interests, resulting (potentially) in an application that AO’s will view as too one-dimensional.